How Ron DeSantis learned to embrace mainstream media and turn off Fox News

CNN —

In a rare moment of self-reflection this week, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis acknowledged out loud what many in his political orbit have privately told him since before he even launched his White House bid.

“I came in not really doing as much media,” DeSantis told conservative radio host Hugh Hewitt on Thursday. “I should have just been blanketing. I should have gone on all the corporate shows. I should have gone on everything.

“We had an opportunity, I think, to come out of the gate and do that and reach a much broader folk,” he added.

The revealing admission about his diminished presidential campaign certainly explains the abrupt change in the governor’s media diet in recent months. After keeping the mainstream press at arm’s length early in his presidential campaign, DeSantis now will seemingly talk into any camera that is rolling.

His warming to traditional outlets has also come amid an escalating cold war with conservative media, especially Fox News, which he has repeatedly called out for what he views as ingratiating coverage of his top rival, former President Donald Trump.

Behind the scenes, the response from many of his longtime advisers, aides and allies has been: What took so long?

At nearly every stage of his political career, people close to DeSantis have urged him to break out of his right-wing media bubble – from his days in Congress to his time in Tallahassee and through the early days of his presidential campaign. And at each interval, he dismissed them.

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis takes part in a CNN town hall on Tuesday, January 16.

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It’s a strategy that seemed to pay dividends